"You did really good." Mia told Carmine at lunch on Monday, before the boys showed up. She'd said the same thing the night before, but it was still good to hear.
"Thanks." Carmine said. "I guess it's not so bad once you get used to it." Once you start ignoring the fact that they're people, she added silently.
"My first time didn't go nearly that smoothly." Mia told her. "But it gets better. And we'll go again in a couple days."
"Ok." Carmine said. "How often do we have to do this anyway?"
"Two or three times a week."
"What are you girls talking about?" Zev asked, setting his tray down on the table. Carmine jumped. She didn't even realize he was there. And Conner was right on his heels.
"Oh – well, nothing." Mia said, shifting her eyes away. Zev looked at her for a minute.
"I don't want to know, do I?" he asked.
"No." Mia told him. Then, turning back to Carmine, she added. "We don't talk about that."
"I don't care what you do, but I don't really need all the gory details." Zev shrugged.
"So how is it going? You...adjusting ok?" Conner asked her.
"She's doing great." Mia answered before Carmine had the chance. "I think she's going to be fine."
Zev nodded, but his face was still neutral. Conner looked like he wanted to ask something else. But he saw the look on Zev's face too, and he decided to wait. Carmine was sure that whatever question he had would come out during art. And she was right. She walked into art, grabbed her supplies, and took her seat. Conner was there minutes later, sitting beside her.
"So, how are you feeling?" Conner asked. He had a strange look on his face that Carmine couldn't quite identify.
"I'm fine." she told him. "Why?"
"Well, you just had a pretty big weekend."
"Yeah..." Carmine said slowly. It was still kind of weird to think about. Carmine started to turn back to her own paper when she realized Conner was still staring at her. She narrowed her eyes. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Sorry," Conner said, dropping his eyes and focusing intently on his painting. But it only took a minute before he was glancing sideways at her again.
"You know, I never looked at you like that when I found out about you." Carmine said, a little snappishly.
"Yes you did!" Conner said, eyes wide. "You remember when we met you that night at the mall? You were staring at Zev like he was an alien or something!"
"Ok, fine." Carmine said, blushing.
"And I didn't mean to stare at you like that." Conner said quietly. "It's just that you're the first person I've ever met to go from being human to...not."
Carmine glanced around, making sure no one was listening. It was weird – she'd done that same thing dozens of times over the past couple of years, but always when discussing her friends. This was the first time she'd had to worry about being the focus of possible unwanted attention herself. She had to admit, she didn't like the feeling.
"It's not that big a deal. I'm still the same person." she mumbled, suddenly not wanting to talk about it.
"I know. It's just that there's been some...mixed feelings about it." Conner said, almost as quiet as Carmine had been. Carmine jumped a little. She kind of only meant to say that to herself – it didn't occur to her that he'd be able to hear it. Guess she really had been the one in the group with the worst hearing. Well, if Conner really could hear that well, at least it meant she could have this conversation without having to worry about being overheard by other students.
"Who has mixed feelings?" she whispered, eyes never leaving her own painting.
"Well, Zev a little." Conner answered after a slight hesitation. "Mostly Luke."
"But not you?" Somehow Carmine had a hard time believing that.
"Well, maybe a little."
And Carmine knew Anna and Mia did too. So basically, everyone. Still, Carmine had never really gotten a good answer for it. "Why?" she asked, turning to look at him.
Conner sighed, looking like he really didn't want to have this conversation.
"Because you were a nice, normal girl." Carmine thought she could see his cheeks turning red. "We didn't really have any of those around."
"You only found that out last spring. Before then, Anna and Mia were nice, normal girls too." Carmine pointed out.
"Yeah, but that was like five months ago! I've had time to get used to it since then."
"Well, get used to it again." Carmine told him.
Still, she had a hard time fighting back her smile – Conner liked her! Or at least, he sure sounded like he might have. She wasn't sure if it was actually true, but the idea was still kind of funny to her. She'd had her eye on a couple kids in their grade, but Conner had never really been one of them. What if he had been? Despite her best efforts, she started grinning at the thought.
"What?" Conner asked. Carmine's grin got even wider. She looked up at him.
"Nothing." she said. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't quite wipe the smirk off her face.
"Don't do that!" Conner said suddenly, eyes wide. He looked quickly around the room.
"What?" she asked. There was no way Conner was that shy.
Conner didn't say anything. Instead, he casually put his thumb up to his mouth, resting it on the tip of his incisor. Carmine ran her tongue along her own teeth. She stopped when it hit up against her incisor. Fangs. How had she done that? Maybe she wasn't as good at controlling it as she thought. What had Anna and Mia said? She closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath, trying not to think about whatever she'd been about to tell Conner. She counted to five and ran her tongue over her teeth again. Nothing.
"Better?" she asked, flashing him a much more normal smile.
"Uh, yeah." he said. But he still looked a little weird. "You need to watch that."
"I'm getting better." she told him defiantly. "...It's not as easy as it looks."
"I can tell." he said dryly. "Just don't let Luke or Zev catch you doing that."
"I won't." she said. But she hadn't meant to do it to him, either.
"Good. 'Cause I don't think either of them would be happy to see it."
"Luke's squeamish?" she asked jokingly.
"Something like that." Conner shrugged. But Carmine knew that wasn't all there was to it.
"Somehow, I doubt that was the reason Luke would give." she told him.
"He just isn't sure that this was the best plan. I mean, it was pretty drastic. Especially after he had to take you to Anna's like that."
"So...he's ok with Anna being a vampire, but no one else?" That didn't make sense to her.
"He doesn't like it at all – it makes everything a lot more complicated. But she turned before he met her. And he didn't even know at first. But you..."
Carmine nodded. She would never admit it, but she could kind of see his point. Still, it wasn't up to Luke – who cared what he thought? But Conner had an answer for that, much to Carmine's annoyance.
"There's a kind of order in our...group. You know." Conner nodded in a way that let Carmine know he wasn't just talking about Luke and Zev. "I kind of have to go with what they say. I mean, I can't really afford to piss off the whole neighborhood."
"What happens if you do?" Carmine was pretty sure she could figure out the answer, but she couldn't help herself. Conner and his friends almost never talked about their neighborhood politics.
"Nothing good." Conner mumbled. Then he looked up at her. "We just really need to keep things low-key for a while. So try not to do anything too crazy, ok?"
He looked so earnest, Carmine found herself agreeing before she even really thought about it. Still, it was an easy thing to promise. After all, how much trouble could she really get into? Besides, she'd have Anna and Mia to help her.
That night, Carmine pulled up into the parking lot at Anna's apartment. Anna and Mia were already waiting outside.
"Where to?" Carmine asked casually – like they were just hanging out.
"Downtown?" Anna asked. "There's more people there."
"Yeah." Mia said. "It's best if we don't have to wait around too long."
Carmine nodded. Not waiting around, thinking about what she was going to be doing, sounded great to her. The whole thing bothered her a lot more than she'd thought it would. She made a left out of the parking lot and headed towards the freeway.
It seemed like no time at all before they were downtown, car parked, checking out the people milling around. Last time wasn't so bad. At least, it wasn't as bad as Carmine thought it would be. Hopefully that would make her less nervous this time. She was even feeling good enough to actually listen to Anna and Mia's discussion about who to target. After all, Carmine was going to have to know this stuff too.
"How about that couple there?" Mia asked, pointing across the street.
"Can't. We need three people." Anna reminded her.
"That guy looks big enough to be two people." Mia muttered.
"Just be patient."
A few more groups walked by. A pack of girls yelling at some friends across the street, an old man and his son. A woman walked by with three kids who'd just gotten done with karate practice. Carmine tensed, suddenly worried that her friends might choose the mom.
"Don't worry." Mia told her, seeing the look on Carmine's face. "Those kids are way too young."
"Good." Carmine breathed a sigh of relief. "'Cause I don't think I could do that."
"I don't think any of us would." Anna said. "I don't really want to traumatize children." Anna looked uncomfortable at the very thought.
"Besides, they're way too hard to control." Mia added. Carmine and Anna just stared at her.
"What? I'm just kidding!" Mia said, but Carmine couldn't decide whether or not to believe her.
Four boys that Carmine was pretty sure went to their school lumbered up the street. They were laughing loudly at something one of them had said, not paying much attention to where they were going. Mia looked glad for the distraction.
"What about them?" Mia asked, still trying to deflect attention away from her last comment.
"All four?" Carmine asked. Seemed like a lot.
"I don't know..." Anna hesitated.
"We've done it before – you and me." Mia pointed out.
"I know, but we've both been doing this for a while."
"She'll be fine." Mia said, waving off Anna's concerns. "She only has to take care of one. We can do the others."
"Is that ok?" Anna asked. Carmine knew what she really meant was Can you do it?
"I think so." Carmine said, suddenly nervous.
"Don't worry. Just do what you did last time." Mia told her. She grinned wickedly, like she'd just had a great idea. "Which one of those boys is the cutest?"
"What?" Carmine asked. What did that have to do with anything?
"Who's the cutest?" Mia asked again. Carmine was surprised to find that Mia was actually serious.
"Umm," Carmine studied the group for a minute. "The blond one." she decided finally.
"Good. He's yours." Mia skipped away before Carmine had a chance to argue.
"Is she joking?" Carmine asked Anna. Anna just shrugged.
"Actually, it sounds like a good idea to me." she grinned before following Mia. Carmine decided to just go with it.
"These are my friends." Mia was saying as she gestured back towards Carmine and Anna.
"Hi." Carmine said, staring nervously at the blond boy. Did Mia really have to pair her up with him?
"Hey." He smiled lazily at her. Just calm down, Carmine told herself. She found herself staring into his eyes, trying to think of what to do.
"Sorry. I'm a little nervous." she confessed, before she even realized what she was saying.
"Don't be." the boy said slowly. Carmine blushed.
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to relax. She had a job to do; she couldn't afford to be nervous – not even if it was because of a really cute guy. She had to focus. She felt a tingling sensation in her nose, like maybe she was going to sneeze. She tried to ignore it, focusing on the boy.
The feeling kept getting stronger and stronger, but still no sneeze. The boy didn't seem to notice. Actually, he looked like he was barely paying attention. And – were his eyes really starting to close?
It was then that Carmine realized the tingling wasn't actually an oncoming sneeze. It was a feeling coming from higher up – her eyes. Her eyes must have changed to that weird gold color. And she'd made the boy fall asleep without even realizing it. This was getting easy!
It was as if Carmine's senses were finally turned on. She felt great – electrified. How did she not notice this feeling the last time? She grinned to herself. It didn't matter – she felt it now! The sounds seemed sharper, the lights brighter. The air around her almost seemed to crackle. And she thought she could hear the boy's pulse.
Carmine turned towards him, a newfound hunger bubbling up inside her. She smiled, lightly touching her tongue to her fang. She was actually managing to do this.
Carmine leaned down over the boy, feeling none of the nervousness she had the first time. She knew what to do, and she was more than capable.
She bit down on his neck, almost enjoying the feeling. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew it was disgusting. But she didn't think about that. All she cared about was the satisfaction of finally being full. And with that fullness came energy, strength. The more she drank, the better she felt. Finally, that feeling of hunger started to die down.
When she was finally done, Carmine pulled away slowly, wiping her mouth on her sleeve before turning to look for her friends. They were sitting there smiling at Carmine, the three boys laying at their feet.
"I think she's going to be fine." Anna said happily.
"I told you that boy would be a great distraction." Mia grinned.
and then Add to home screen.